There may be trouble ahead…

You might think that the government, the banks and the global business community know what they’re doing with all the supercomputers and experience they have. You only look at government and the banks and you will know that they can mess up big time and we the people pay for it.

Markets

The world financial crisis of 2007 still lingers on, they have had 9 years to fix things since Lehman brothers went bust, but we see scandal after scandal. Now the world stock markets are crashing again or if you want Osborne political speak, they are ‘turbulent’. He can’t even keep up the payments on government debt let alone pay it off. His program of austerity has driven the most vulnerable in our society to suicide. His henchman Iain Duncan Smith never ceases to amaze us with even more attacks on the poor and disabled. We have to expect it to get worse and have a survival plan. Being thrifty and frugal now might just save you from losing your home when things get really bad. In April stamp duty on ‘buy to let’ goes up, curbing that immoral practice, then some fun will start. I also think taxes will have to go up, so expect a big rise in the price of petrol and maybe alcohol too. I might buy my Christmas booze before then!

Shoppers are deserting the big name supermarkets and going to the discounters, so I’m not the only one being thrifty.

Aldi

The Aldi super-six this week are leeks, Brussels sprouts, kiwi, limes, cherry tomatoes and swede. Those will save you a few pennies and pennies mount up to pounds.

The special buys today are car products like a jump starter and seat covers and there is also lots of products with a crafts theme. I need to look at the craft products.

The special buys on Sunday are all creature comforts things like bird boxes. Do you really need those? You might also ask if you need to spend a fortune on Valentine’s day cards and gifts. All the money we spend on these gifts at birthdays, Valentines day, Christmas and other occasions, mounts up. Maybe, you can come to an agreement to spend less and take a practical approach to gifts?

While you’re thinking about being thrifty check your bank account. Could you survive a crisis if people were queuing at the cash machine and the bank was closed? The government has said they won’t bail the banks again, so maybe it is time to make sure you have enough cash to survive for a while?

Frugal

You can also save money by being frugal and cooking some cheap meals. Instead of a takeaway meal on a Friday, why not cook up something really frugal like eggs and chips?

FTSE 100

When the FTSE 100 stock market index was over 7000, one pundit forecasting a crash said it could crash by 20% bringing it down to 5600. That was last year and the FTSE 100 today is 5538 and it’s still falling. Lloyds shares were at 90p and the chancellor was planning on selling the government’s shares. He had to cancel that as they dropped to just 56p. It’s not his fault, though, it’s the ‘markets’…

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